New Delhi: Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma denied in Parliament that his ministry gave grants-in-aid only to theatre artistes. He said that grants-in-aid under various schemes were not confined only to theatre artistes but also to Drama, Dance, Music, Acting etc.

However, he noted that the Sangeet Natak Akademi, an autonomous organization under the Ministry allocated Rs. 18.50 lakh for Rang Prithibha Punjab in Patiala during 2012. In addition, Rs. 160 lakh was given to Natya Samagama, Agartala and Rs. 5.52 lakh per year since 2011 for training programmes in Prahlad Natak.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi scheme for grant-in-aid is intended to enable the Akademi to offer grants-in-aid to select cultural institutions engaged in the promotion of performing arts, namely, music, dance and drama.

The grants-in-aid scheme is to serve primarily two objectives: to provide financial support to institutions engaged in training in the fields of music, dance and drama and to encourage production of new plays and ballets, etc.

The scheme will also provide the specific project of a specialized nature considered useful in the larger interest, for organizing festivals/special events/exhibitions of rare /dying forms of music / dance / theatre to create awareness of such art forms and for advance training, refresher courses, workshop and lecture - demonstrations etc. by eminent Gurus.

The scheme will provide for support to research and survey projects in the field of performing arts and purchase of stage and other technical equipment.
For this purpose, financial assistance will be provided on an annual basis to meet the expenditure on the salaries and stipends of teachers and students, honorarium and fees to the artists, expenses on new productions which will include rental charges and expenses on publicity, maintaining shows on a regular basis and cost of establishment (including cost of administrative staff up to 15 percent of the total amount of the grant.)

The scheme will also provide for support to the folk performing parties in various regions working in the fields of music, dance and drama so that they are able to sustain their activities in their respective regions. The scheme will also encourage work in other specialized areas in the field of performing arts such as community singing and children's theatre.

The Akademi directly selects institutions/individuals and formulate specific programmes and projects for implementation in various specialized fields such as short term training courses, encouragement to children’s theatre and community singing and subsidy to the folk performing groups and holding of art festivals on a zonal basis. Most of these programmes will be organized in collaboration with the State/Akademies/ major institutions in the fields in the regions concerned.